


Study

by ghostmonday



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostmonday/pseuds/ghostmonday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wondered what he would say if she suggested they went inside and watched Saw, and then she blushed and skipped quickly past a page when she realized that was kind of cruel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't mean to write Twilight fanfiction but it happened

He was more comfortable in the tree. In the one she sat under, back to him, with his feet level to her shoulders and one arm hooking him to a higher branch. Bella had carried a blanket out with her, rolled up under her arm, this now spread over the wet grass. She smoothed it out to sit and read on, as she liked to do when sunrays poked through the clouds. After the first try, she had given up on patting the blanket and looking up hopefully behind her, as Edward clearly didn't wish to be on the ground. 

The book was a very drab and predictable mystery mailed to her by Renee last week, started in good faith and continued out of duty. The blanket was flannel and run through with holes at some corners. And the boy, the boy was some tree nymph.

"Yeah, I thought you were a vampire," Bella spoke suddenly, swallowing her spit before she got the words out. Aware that this probably made no sense and wouldn't really be funny even if she elaborated on her train of thought, she returned to the book with a red face. She turned a page slowly, stalling on the last word of the current one. She was pretty sure she'd faded out of attention at some point, and gave up the urge to back up and reread anything as she was already very positive of just where in the catacombs this "missing" boy was. 

"The book, you don't like it," Edward muttered, just as out of context if they ever had context, sneakers scraping the bark of the tree. Bella craned her neck to look at him in surprise, finding him caging himself in with his shoulders like he always did. A trait she found bat-like. Maybe he was a vampire after all. Charlie might have said "vulture," rather, and Bella considered that fair but knew it just wasn't in Edward's system. Many things seemed removed from Edward, maybe still lying, dried out, in the blackest part of his eye cycle. Those were gold now, his eyes. She paid attention and secretly, in a notebook she kept under the mattress, took note of how his behavior changed along with the shade. The notebook was filling up quickly as it spiraled into essay territory. 

"I didn't say that," she dodged, eyeing him up and down. "But nah, it's—it's pretty bad."

He chuckled. "I was reading over your shoulder before."

Bella nodded and said "oh." Then she looked down and smiled.

"Did you...figure out the..." He gestured shyly toward the paperback and adjusted his position on the branch.

"The mom killed him?"

Edward nodded grimly, a queasy look on his face. "It's very...dark."

The book had been very dark so far, and Bella nodded. She noticed the grip of Edward's knuckles on the tree. One of the first thick grown-up books Bella had read without Renee knowing was Bram Stoker's Dracula when she was eleven, and after that she moved on to Stephen King. From the start she was desensitized and had never been very susceptible to supposedly disturbing media. Excessive gore was trying too hard and murder was a plot point. She ignored the rather delayed little "ha!" in her head when she realized the irony of Dracula in context and then instead took note, mentally, that Edward was sensitive to anything very horrible after he'd recently fed. She wondered what he would say if she suggested they went inside and watched Saw, and then she blushed and skipped quickly past a page when she realized that was kind of cruel. 

"What are you thinking?" He asked. "Is it bothering you now?"

"The—the book? What, nah," she denied. "Listen, I think it's gonna start raining now, you wanna go inside?"

He nodded slowly. "If you'd like to."

They walked to the front of the house. When he held open the creaky screen door for her (always such a fumbling gentleman), she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked up at him, pulling the folded blanket tighter to her chest. "You seem like a Jane Austen kind of person," she suggested lightly. "I mean, if you like movie adaptations, or if you even like movies, since—"

"Bella," he laughed. "I'm not oblivious to modern media. I'm...down, with the pictures you kids are into."

She nodded.

"That was a joke, don't...don't take that to heart, I watch movies."

She looked down again when she laughed and stepped inside, him following. He kept a careful distance, but was close enough that she could smell the earth on him, for it was the only smell that ever stuck over that predatory musk. Except maybe blood. She shook that thought away. And they watched the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, with Colin Firth. Edward had seen it, and he liked it, and he liked it just as much when they watched it together. Bella saw no need to take note of this on paper.


End file.
